Canastota wrestlers win own tournament

CANASTOTA -- Canastota won its annual Dick New Memorial Wrestling Tournament Saturday, crowning four champions out of five finalists.

Oddly, defending state champion Zack Zupan wasn't one of the winners.

The Raiders' top wrestler lost by injury default to Holland patent's Taylor Short at 182 pounds, but by that time the hosts had amassed three crowns and wrapped up the title ahead of perennial state power Phoenix.

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Canastota won with 238 points followed by Phoenix (214), Jamesville-DeWitt/CBA (182), Section II's Schalmont (178) and Section X's Gouverneur (162) in the field of 17 teams.

The Raiders began the finals with two wrestlers winning their first invitational crowns. Nate walker won at 120 and Connor Russ at 126. Jesse Puchales won at 170 and Jacob Morris ended the two-day tourney with a four-overtime win at 285.

"Getting to the weight I'm at now, I'm solid," Walker said with confidence after edging Phoenix's Brad Dietz 5-2. "Last year I was a small 113-pounder."

Walker had two pins and a 15-1 win to set up his title bout and he used two takedowns in the second period to break open a close match. Both times he grabbed Dietz's head while shooting in for his single leg takedown.

Great leg rides in the third period helped him hold on for the win that padded the team's lead.

Russ - eventually named one of the tourney MOWs - had three pins in the first period to set up his showdown with HP's Alex Herringshaw, a state-tourney veteran. Russ countered a throw on the line for the first takedown then gave up a questionable penalty point before the first period ended.

The Canastota senior chose bottom for the second period and it almost backfired on him as Herringshaw almost turned him at the end of the period and worked arm bars that wore on Russ' shoulder. The HP standout then reversed Russ early in the third period for a 3-2 lead before being warned for stalling with 1:10 to go then penalized for a false start seconds later.

That made it 3-3 before Herringshaw had a great counter to Russ' reversal attempt and it led to two back points.

The 5-3 lead was short-lived.

Russ got a fresh start when they went out of bounds with 40 seconds to go. Eight seconds later a superb reversal led to an even better pinning hold that ended the match with a pin for the Canastota senior.

"I went with something different," Russ said of his choice of moves after the last fresh start of the match. "And I hit it.

"I feel like I've been getting stronger as the season's goes on."

Puchales certainly did as the tourney wore on. He pinned his first foe in 51 seconds then had pins in 3:17 and 3:57 to reach the finals against Phoenix's William Hilliard. The Canastota senior earned a quick takedown and back points twice in the first period, added more back points in the second then pinned Hilliard just 22 seconds in the third period.

Zupan's match followed and in typical fashion the senior took his foe down quickly then let him up to take him down twice more before the first period ended. Zupan also had three back points in the first two minutes for a 9-2 lead and he escaped quickly in the second. Moments later it was all over as Zupan was called for an illegal slam on a takedown and was penalized. When Short was unable to continue after injury time was exhausted, he was awarded the match.

It was the second time in as many tournaments that the state champ lost a match he was leading handily.

Morris closed out Canastota's championship with a 3-2 win in four overtimes against Oneida's Tyler Havener at 285. Regulation and overtime saw scoreless first periods followed by the wrestlers trading escapes in the second and third. By criteria, Morris had choice of position for the sudden victory fourth OT session and chose down. Five seconds later he escaped to earn his title.

Oneida's Matt Fisher was the only other Dispatch-area wrestler to make the finals and he dropped a 4-1 decision in a battle of unbeatens. Schalmont's Nick Gallo used a takedown with 41 seconds left in the first period to take control then countered a cradle attempt by Fisher in the second for a reversal with 25 seconds to go for a 4-0 lead.

Fisher earned an escape early in the third period but Gallo - the other tourney MOW - was too tough to take down and the Oneida senior settled for his first loss of the year.